Deploy kiosk devices with the Managed Home Screen Android app
The Managed Home Screen app allows Microsoft Intune admins to deploy multi-app kiosk devices. IT should learn the two best Managed Home Screen Android management options.
Microsoft's Managed Home Screen Android management app enables IT to configure a kiosk device that can run multiple apps and restricts capabilities that the user can access.
IT can use the Managed Home Screen app as a launcher within Microsoft Intune to deploy these Android configurations by either using a Device configuration profile, or an App configuration policy. Before IT professionals configure a multi-app kiosk mode device, they should take the following steps within Microsoft Intune:
Configure Android Enterprise dedicated device enrollment, including dynamic group.
Add Managed Home Screen app as a Managed Google Play store app.
Assign Managed Home Screen app as a required app to the dynamic group.
How to configure the Managed Home Screen app using a device configuration profile
The preferred method for IT to configure the Managed Home Screen app is with a Device configuration profile. A Device configuration profile provides the best configuration options for the Managed Home Screen Android management app and will ensure that the actual configured multi-app kiosk mode works as expected.
When IT professionals use a Device configuration profile, they should use the following five steps to walk through the basic configuration steps for a multi-app kiosk mode.
Open the Microsoft 365 Device Management portal and navigate to Devices > Android > Configuration profiles to open the Android -- Configuration profiles blade
On the Android -- Configuration profiles blade, click Create profile to open the Create profile blade
On the Create profile blade, provide the following information and click
Name: Provide a valid name
Description: (Optional) Provide a valid description
Platform: Select Android Enterprise
Profile type: Select Device Owner Only > Device restrictions
Settings: See step 4
On the Settings blade, select Dedicated devices to open the Dedicated devices blade
On the Dedicated devices blade, select Multi-app to open the multi-app configuration options. In this section, the IT admin should add at least two or more apps to make the multi-app configuration work. IT pros can choose apps they added to Microsoft Intune as an App type of Managed Google Play, or Android Enterprise system apps. IT can use the remaining configuration options to further restrict or open the multi-app kiosk mode configuration. IT professionals can achieve this by configuring settings related to the screensaver, media volume, flashlight, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, background, leaving kiosk mode and the virtual home button.
After inputting the configuration settings, IT pros should click OK > OK to return to the Create profile
After IT admins create the Device configuration profile, they should assign the profile to the dynamic device group that they created for the dedicated device enrollment and for the deployment of the Managed Home Screen Android management app. That group contains the required dedicated devices of the organization, and it cannot be a user group.
How to configure the Managed Home Screen app using app configuration policies
IT can use an App configuration policy to configure additional options of the Managed Home Screen app that are not yet available via a Device configuration profile.
The alternative method that IT pros can use to configure the Managed Home Screen Android management app is with an App configuration policy. IT can use an App configuration policy to configure additional options of the Managed Home Screen app that are not yet available via a Device configuration profile.
Theoretically, IT could also use this method to deploy the complete multi-app kiosk mode configuration. IT pros should only use this method to configure additional options, however, because the user experience of this configuration method rarely functions as expected.
When IT pros uses the App configuration profile method, they should follow these five steps to manually create a multi-app kiosk mode:
Open the Microsoft 365 Device Management portal and navigate to Apps > App configuration policies to open the Apps -- App configuration policies
On the Apps -- App configuration policies blade, click Add to open the Add configuration policy
On the Add configuration policy blade, provide at least the following information and click Add
Name: Provide a valid name
Description: (Optional) Provide a valid description
Device enrollment type: Select Managed devices
Platform: Select Android
Associated app: See step 4
Configuration settings: See step 5
On the Associated app blade, select Managed Home Screen and click OK to return to the Add configuration policy
On the Configuration settings blade, select Use configuration designer and click Add to open a blade with all the available configuration keys for the Managed Home Screen app. IT can use these to configure additional options of the Managed Home Screen app. Besides the mentioned configuration options in the Device configuration profile, these configuration keys can also configure settings related to the grid size, notifications, icon size, folders, screen orientation and the battery.
After adding the different configuration keys, click OK to return to the Add configuration policy
